Imposter Syndrome, How to combat feeling like a fraud
Imposter syndrome is something that I’ve dealt with for a few years. And it’s been rather prevalent in the last six months. Here are some stories about how it affects me day to day and some principles I use to combat it.
What is imposter syndrome?
It’s loosely defined as doubting your accomplishments and having a fear of being exposed as a fraud. Basically, this idea of, you feeling like a fake.
What sparked me feeling like an imposter?
One of the things that sparked my imposter syndrome was that I never had an “expert skill” in one area across design. I always found myself learning new things and never mastering one craft.
This made me a competent product designer but the niggle of feeling like an imposter never went away. The idea of being a “specialist-generalist” was a foreign idea and one I wasn’t comfortable with until recently.
I have been lucky to have had a diversity of experience in my career, ranging from sleep-trackers, to financial goal setting platforms. Rather than celebrating this diversity of application, it has made me feel spread thin and uncomfortable.
I’ve felt like a fraud many times.
There is not one particular thing that sets me off. It can come in any circumstance and without warning.
Whether i’m explaining a workshop process, collaborating with stakeholders, or even presenting, I do find myself asking “Why would anyone listen to me?” or “Who am I to give my opinion”
How does it affect me on projects?
I burn out a lot quicker
The initial doubt seed that is planted if not addressed can lead to a feeling of exhaustion very early on in projects.
When your brain is filled with doubt and uncertainty it’s impossible to focus on the problem that needs solving.
It stops me from trusting my intuition
As designers we have to rely on our intuition to bridge the gap between research and actually making the thing.
Moving from assumptions to possible solutions requires intuition and confidence. Not confidence that you will have the answer immediately, but that through a process your team will eventually solve the problem.
Without this confidence, it creates inertia. If you can’t trust your intuition, how do you know how to progress?
But don’t despair, It’s part of the process
What I’ve come to realize from having this feeling of being like a fraud is it’s perfectly normal to feel like this from time to time and it shouldn’t be feared. And you just have to lean into that uncomfortable feeling.
To quote a friend of mine
You either have imposter syndrome or you’re a psychopath.
Principles to combat imposter syndrome
Ask for help
Ask for help all the time, from everyone. If you don’t know something, it’s okay to ask. This will remove a lot of the pressure to know the answers. You also set a good example for others.
Become a mentor
Mentoring does not mean that you have to be an expert in what you do.It’s not a job, it’s a role that you give yourself. You can give advice and help others with the knowledge that you have in a particular subject. It can be coding, public speaking basically anything that you feel that you can help another person learn.
By doing this, you reaffirm what you already know it and it’s rewarding to see someone grow off the back of your knowledge. It will dull the voice saying “you don’t know what you’re talking about”
Focus on understanding the problem, not offering the solution.
One thing that sets off imposter syndrome is the pressure that you have to have the answers to everything, and if you don’t, you feel like you don’t know what you are doing.
You can’t solve complex problems by yourself. If you try, you probably going to fail.
What’s more important is focusing on collectively understanding the problem, bringing in subject matter experts that know more about this space than you do and building evidence and creating experiments to slowly build confidence to move to the next step.
Have a learning mindset.
There is a constant pressure in design not only be an expert in your speciality, but also know all parts of the design process, from research methods to front end development.
There will always be new things to learn and you will never be an expert in all of them all the time.
There will always be a new problem to solve some new technology to get your head around or book that you have to read.There is a fear to keep up and know everything all the time.
What you should be doing is focusing on constantly learning rather than constantly being a master.
Celebrate the wins
It’s important to stop and enjoy the wins from time to time. Allow yourself the headspace to hear the positive from others and yourself. One way i’ve found helps is to write a list of achievements of the last 3 months outside of what you set up to achieve — you will be surprised how much you have achieved without even trying.
Lastly, embrace it
Once you’re aware of what imposter syndrome is and how it feels, you’re in a good position to embrace it.If we had no self doubt, no drive, no fears we wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning, let alone try to solve some of the worlds most complex problems.
Thanks for reading :)
If you have any more principles to tackle imposter syndrome let me know in the comments below.
If you want to chat reach out to me on Twitter 👏
